The present invention relates to airborne obstacle collision avoidance apparatus. The invention is particularly applicable in apparatus for avoiding low-flying hazards such as cables, which are particularly hazardous for helicopters, but the invention may be used for avoiding other types of obstacles, such as hills, sand dunes or other terrain formations, other aircraft, etc.
Direct vision is frequently not sufficient to avoid collisions with objects, and many obstacle collision avoidance systems have been designed for this purpose. However, the problem has become particularly serious for helicopters since, even under good conditions with trained users and with the aid of night vision devices, direct vision cannot always reveal power lines, sand dunes, telephone poles, and other such hazards to low flying aircraft.